The Conduct of the Game - Hardcover

A fast-paced combination baseball and coming-of-age story with a new wrinkle. As a high school baseball player on Cape Cod in the 1950s, Lee Malcolm is introduced to umpiring and it becomes his passion. He is soon off to Nick Nickinello's umpiring school in Florida. Along the road to becoming a major league umpire Lee is forced to cope with the death of his older brother and with an alcoholic but loving father; to balance love affairs with his high school sweetheart, Pam, and an earthy girl he meets in a Florida bar; and to endure the taunts of fans and confrontations with players and managers. His partners in the umpiring game are as fascinating a group of characters as one could hope to meet. Hough obviously knows the game of baseball intimately, and he has made a hero out of a most unlikely character, a baseball umpire. Highly recommended. Brian E. Coutts, Rice Univ. Lib., Houston
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A good baseball novel is always a pleasant surprise, and this book is just that. Unlike many books of the genre that recount close games in perfect detail and lead up to a momentous contest, however, this narrative focuses on one of the men behind the plate rather than players. It is an achingly evocative coming-of-age saga in which the hero, Lee Malcolm, tells of growing up and falling in love in a small town in the '50s and '60s. Born to call strikes, he sets off for umpire's school and begins a fast rise to the majors. The story darkens as Malcolm is caught up in personal and sexual conflicts that culminate in a tragic end for the four man crew of which he is a part. A sincere, skillfully written and highly pleasurable tale, it is less about the game than about people, integrity and commitment. Hough (The Guardian shows a maturing talent here.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.